USS Kraken (SS-370) - USS Kraken (SS-370)

USS Kraken (SS-370)

Kraken was launched 30 April 1944, by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., Manitowoc, Wisc.; sponsored by Mrs. John Z. Anderson, wife of Congressman Anderson of California; and commissioned 8 September 1944, Commander Thomas H. Henry in command.

Kraken steamed by way of Chicago to Lockport, Ill., 27 September 1944, and was carried in a floating drydock down the Mississippi River arriving at Algiers, La., 4 October. Ten days later Kraken cleared Algiers, transited the Panama Canal and underwent intensive training in the Gulf of Panama. She sailed for Hawaii 4 November and arrived Pearl Harbor November 21.

Kraken departed Pearl Harbor December 12, 1944, for her first war patrol, touched at Saipan December 23, set course for Indochina next morning. There she maintained lifeguard duty in support of 3rd Fleet carrier strikes. While on station she rescued a Lexington pilot from rough seas and evaded a strafing enemy plane by diving. Finding no targets, Kraken set course for Fremantle, Australia, arriving there 14 February 1945.

Kraken departed on her second war patrol 15 March and maintained lifeguard duty in the South China Sea supporting aircraft carrier strikes against Singapore and Saigon. She returned to Subic Bay, P.I., 26 April.

Departing on her third war patrol on 19 May 1945, Kraken set course for the Gulf of Siam. After searching in vain for enemy targets, she shifted to the Java Sea where on 19 June she bombarded Merak and riddled a coaster and a small ship with 5-inch (130 mm) and 40 mm projectiles. She saw the coaster sink and she left the small ship ablaze before clearing the harbor.

Three days later, while chasing an eight-ship convoy, Kraken's torpedoes sank an oiler and a coastal steamer and her guns inflicted heavy damage on one of the Japanese submarine chasers. Then Kraken proudly sailed into Fremantle, Australia, 3 July 1945, ending her most successful patrol.

Kraken sailed on her fourth and last patrol 29 July. While seeking the enemy in the Java Sea, her patrol was cut short when she received news of Japan's capitulation. Sailing for Subic Bay, she arrived 21 August.

Kraken cleared Subic Bay 31 August 1945, touched at Pearl Harbor, and arrived at San Francisco 22 September. On 14 October she rendezvoused with Admiral William Halsey's 3rd Fleet and formed a part of honor escort for Halsey, as he passed under the Golden Gate Bridge in his flagship, South Dakota (BB-57). Ten days later Kraken visited Longview, Wash., for the first postwar Navy Day celebrations and returned to San Francisco 31 October where she was placed out of commission 4 May 1946 in the Pacific Reserve Fleet.